Tracking Software

Tracking software analyzes your hand histories and gives you a report of your opponents’ statistics. It’s incredibly valuable when making poker decisions and can make a huge difference in your game.

I use Pokertracker 4 and I personally think it’s the best tracking software on the market. Many people prefer Hold’Em Manager 2 though which is absolutely fine of course. They both cost roughly the same and they’re both fantastic programs that pay for themselves in no time.

Multi-Tabling Software

If you’re playing more than 6 tables at a time, then investing in a software like Table Ninja 2 might be a good idea. It has many great features for multi-tabling and can make your life a lot easier, especially when you’re playing on a site that doesn’t have hotkeys.

One of the most important things about multi-tabling well is having as little distraction as possible while playing. Using a software like Table Ninja will make betting and managing your layouts as automatic as possible so you can focus all your energy on the decisions in the game.

Other Software

Equilab is a free equity calculator from Pokerstrategy.com. It’s a very useful tool for learning about ranges and your chances of winning in different situations.

You can use Equilab to calculate the equities of different poker scenarios. One of the most interesting features is calculating the equity of your specific hand against a range of hands you assign to your opponent. Doing this is a great way to get a feeling for the value of your hands in different situations. It also requires you to think about your opponents’ ranges, which is a very good exercise to develop strong hand reading skills.

Custom Popups and Autonotes

To streamline the information available to me at the table, I took some time to develop custom popups and Notetracker notes in Pokertracker 4.

Books

This is the book that got me started on the way to becoming a winning player. If you’re struggling at the micros this is the definite guide to set you on the path to success. It will help you develop a good understanding of all the important concepts needed to play winning poker. It won’t teach you how to crush aggressive regs at NL400 but for learning how to beat the lowest stakes there is no better book out there.

Next to BlackRain79’s book, this is the one that had the biggest impact on my game. It will teach you how to truly maximize your winrate and move away from playing the robotic style that has become the norm among small stakes TAG players. The whole book focuses on ways to exploit the specific mistakes your opponents make (and at NL25 and lower, you won’t encounter a single opponent who doesn’t have any significant weaknesses). It’s not aimed at beginning players though, you should be comfortable with things like hand selection, blind stealing and other basic strategic concepts. While working through the book my motivation just exploded and I couldn’t wait to go out there and find every one of my opponents’ weaknesses and exploit them until they ran out of chips.

For anyone taking the game serious and having ambitions that go beyond playing as a hobby, “Treat Your Poker Like a Business” is a must-read. It doesn’t contain much strategy but it’s full of great advice on how to organize yourself as a player. Topics from bankroll management to the impact of nutrition and sleep on your game are covered in detail and Dusty is a great example to follow if you have any aspirations of becoming a professional player.

This is one of the newest books out there and it’s targeted exclusively at live play. It aims to teach players how to beat live NL Hold’em at stakes ranging from NL200 to NL1000. Just because it’s missing advice on how to set up a HUD doesn’t mean it has no value for internet players though. On the contrary, I think it’s a very good guide for beginning to intermediate players and has a lot of useful information even if you’re playing small stakes online. Like all of Ed Miller’s books it’s also very well written.

Picking up right where “Crushing the Microstakes” left off, Modern Small Stakes is a great follow up for anyone that feels that the games at NL2 and NL5 don’t provide enough of a challenge anymore (or who just wants to make more money). Using countless hand examples, the book does a great job of teaching you about a variety of different situations you will encounter after leaving the micros behind. It’s an invaluable resource for players of NL25 and up and has taught me a lot about how to deal with those aggressive games.

Dealing with tilt and other mental problems is an area of poker that is still being ignored by an overwhelming amount of players. With everyone learning the strategy of the game, there is a huge edge to be gained by having more control over your emotions at the table. For everyone dealing with tilt, motivation, anxiety or any other mental issue, The Mental Game of Poker is by far the best way to overcome their problems.

Training Sites

Deuces Cracked has been one of the top training sites for as long as online poker has been around. They have an incredible collection of high level players producing content that includes big name pros like Dani “Ansky” Stern, Aaron “WiltOnTilt” Wilt and Andrew “BalugaWhale” Seidman. The quality of the videos is fantastic and there is an unbelievable amount of great information to be found on the site. You can get a free 7 day trial and check it out today!

Tournamentpokeredge is a very well run training site that focuses exclusively on tournament poker. The videos are incredibly well made and feature top tournament players like Andrew “focault” Brokos, Danny “DannyN13” Noseworthy and Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah. Signing up with Tournamentpokeredge will give you access to over 1.000 videos and over 200 strategy articles to master tournament poker. If you’re playing Sit & Gos or MTTs, this is the definite site for strategy videos.